Don't Stop EP

Troubleman Unlimited; 2003

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San Francisco quartet Tussle are about the groove. Their rhythm-heavy lineup-- a traditional drummer, an auxiliary percussionist, a bassist, and a warm body behind the synthesizers-- betrays this dogged preoccupation, as does their decided lack of proper melody, or song structure, or really anything that might distract from their deep 4/4 stomps. Tussle are dub before they're trance or some equally confusing organic abomination, but, to put it crudely, they're able to maintain the warmth of the former without compromising the precision of latter. It's an impressive "best of both worlds" equation that, perhaps despite this creative dissonance, allows Tussle to create almost completely hookless tracks that are memorable nonetheless.

We experience this sound fully but for too short a time on Don't Stop. The twenty-two minute EP collects one previously released remix of "Eye Contact", two new songs ("Windmill" and the title track), and two remixes of these new songs including a Soft Pink Truth "disco-hijacked" reworking of "Windmill".

The bassline of title track begins typically enough amidst the hi-hat swishes, only to jump suddenly from its lowdown self to an extremely colorful (if off-key) major third, an unexpected but delightful punchline. The auxiliary percussion wades in and out of chamber echo effects and trashy cowbells, eventually forcing the bassline to surrender completely for a few moments before the line recasts itself and beckons the synthesizer into the mix. "Windmill" is the title track's crisper cousin, stumbling in with a string of vocal cutups and featuring a reserved but energetic percussion breakdown. Percussion almost entirely subsumes the bassline of Tussle's own remix of "Eye Contact", the band hinting at it like dub Picassos, fragmentarily.

The Soft Pink Truth remix of "Windmill" centers its larger-than-dub beat atop a feisty conga solo, leaving the bassline intact for a time before wrenching it entirely into high-flying kaleidoscopic arpeggios and chopping it up so finely that by the end of the track, the bassline's sole seems purely rhythmic as well. The storied Stuart Argabright approximates simple tape and pitchshifting manipulations, not to mention a peppering of Mego-esque noise, before granting the bassline its proper entrance and subsequent de-evolutions. For songs so minimal to begin with, it's remarkable how well both remixers are able to mine their source material for energy without decimating the songs' original dub appeal.

If Tussle can be criticized for anything, it's that their songs can be extremely homogenous, both among the tracks and within the tracks themselves. One can't help but bring up LCD Soundsystem's pretentious mix of "Yeah" as a benchmark for similar-sounding releases such as the Don't Stop EP, since the former's infinite depth and versatility seems to be the major point of superiority. In a live setting, I can't imagine Tussle not indulging in more expansive builds and overall jumpiness, and with any luck they might be able to translate this restless energy more readily to their future recordings.